By Bret Strelow

bstrelow@salisburypost.com

Moments after Salisbury senior Madi Ralston completed a rise to prominence, her mother experienced a breathtaking fall.

The 1A/2A swimming championships were held Monday at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary, and Ralston won a state title in the 100 yard butterfly. Her mother, Mandi, watched from the top row of bleachers stationed in a spectator balcony.

"Everybody was standing up in front of me, so I stood up on top of the bleacher," Mandi said. "When she won, I went to step back and I fell flat over the back of the bleachers. Everybody turned around and looked at me instead of looking at her."

The drop covered only a few feet, and it's become a source of laughter within the family.

A dramatic race followed by an unplanned dive made for a memorable Monday. Ralston, who had set a goal of breaking a minute flat, finished in 59.46 seconds. Tarboro's Chandler Harris, who led at the halfway point, touched next with a time of 59.95.

"When I touched the wall, apparently everyone was just going crazy, but it was completely silent to me," Ralston said.

"I don't remember hearing anyone cheering or anything. I just remember looking up at the board to find out that I won and I got under a minute. I was just ecstatic and jumped out of the pool. It was just the most unreal feeling knowing I had won because I wanted this so bad."

Ralston started swimming when she was 9, and she has worked with Rowan Aquatic Club coach Matt Hall for the last three years. She credits his instruction for improving her toughness and technique without compromising her enjoyment of the sport.

Ralston placed fifth in the 100 butterfly as a junior with a time of 1:00.73, one of 12 instances in which she broke 61 seconds but didn't go under 60. She entered this year's championships as the No. 3 seed behind Harris, whom she had beaten at a recent club meet, and Elkin's Sarah Singleton.

Ralston's time of 1:00.17 in the preliminary round ranked first, and a strong finish helped her overtake Harris in the final.

"I knew this girl took all of her races out really fast," Ralston said. "I knew no matter how fast she could take it out, I could bring it home faster. I tried to not let her get that far in front of me, but I was trying to focus more on how I was swimming personally than where I was in the event.

"I was just so focused on going, I honestly didn't know she was ahead of me. I could see she was right there with me."

The short-course pool is 25 yards long, meaning each competitor went down and back twice. Each of the event's four legs begin with the swimmer staying underwater for a maximum of 15 meters — roughly half the pool's length — before emerging and performing the butterfly stroke.

At 5-foot-2, Ralston is often much shorter than anyone else in the field. She has worked hard to build leg strength so she can excel in the underwater phase.

"You have to push off deep underneath the water to avoid the turbulence that you cause when you're going one direction, then you change directions," Hall said. "She has to focus on pushing off deeper than the turbulence she had caused."

The tireless training, which includes weight-lifting, paid off for Ralston when she passed Harris for first place in the final 25 yards.

They hugged each other after the race and posed with Singleton, who claimed third, during the medals ceremony. Ralston stood atop a higher platform reserved for the winner and was still almost eye-to-eye with Harris, who is about 5-8.

"I try not to be intimidated," Ralston said. "I get really focused when I'm swimming. I'm afraid that everyone would think I was mean, though, because I just don't talk to anybody. I was just really focused."

Ralston, who also finished fifth individually in the 100 freestyle, was part of a fourth-place 400 free relay with Carley Drye, Katie Cater and Shelby Carrion. Salisbury ended up fifth in the team standings, and CCC champion West Davidson won the title.

Ralston said she was overwhelmed with the support she received from West Davidson swimmers and other competitors.

"It's a really unifying sport, and it was really cool to see how many people congratulated me that I didn't know," Ralston said.

Ralston plans to attend Clemson on an academic scholarship. Salisbury graduate Garrison Stevens is a freshman on the Tigers' swim team, and Ralston isn't sure if she wants to invest the time it'd take to compete at the collegiate level.

She laughed when declaring that now, given how her prep career ended, might be a good time to stop.

"It's like the cherry on top of the sundae," her mother said, "to win this at the end of her senior year."